Instructors and Staff
Steven Bennett - Instructor
Steven Bennett is a teacher and custom woodworker. He received his BA at Pratt Institute where he made his first piece of furniture, including a reading chair carved out of a tree from Prospect Park. His focus is on hardwood custom furniture, paying special attention to traditional joinery, ergonomics, and using quality sustainable materials and methods for unique pieces that will last for generations. He is also an expert in woodbending, including steam and lamination techniques. He has been designing and making custom furniture since 2005, and began teaching at Makeville in 2015.
Steven Ceraso - Instructor
Steven Ceraso is an accomplished fine artist and woodworker. Steven has previously taught and worked as a technical assistant at 3rd Ward Brooklyn, Long Island University, The New York Studio School, and Parsons School of Design. His work has been exhibited at Fountain Art Fair, Williamsburg Art Walks, The Parrish Museum, Angels Gate Cultural Art Center, The Carnegie Museum, and Adelphi University. Steven's sculptural work combines repurposed materials with hand crafted forms. He is currently working on a relief carving commission for Iona College.
Jess Chase - Shop Monitor
Bridget Conway - Instructor and Shop Monitor
Alan Dorsey - Instructor
Alan Dorsey has been woodworking professionally since 2002 with a focus on residential cabinetry and custom furniture. He began woodturning in 2008 and produces furniture parts, architectural components, positives for casting (metals, ceramic, concrete, etc.), prototypes for product design, as well as his own sculptural artistic works. Showing a preference for distressed or difficult woods in his own work he strives to exaggerate natural textures by framing them in simplified classical elements and forms.
Jenna Goodman - Studio Manager and Instructor
I'm a former mechanical engineer and primarily self-taught woodworker and artist. I make playful and functional objects, furniture, and sculpture using a mixture of machines and hand tools. As a teacher I aim to make the woodshop a comfortable environment for anyone and everyone. My specialties include machine safety and skill building, simple furniture design, and finding ways to turn scrap wood into useful and beautiful household objects.
Kelly Harris - Instructor
Kelly Harris is a Woodworker/Furniture Maker/Designer/Teacher. Kelly builds custom pieces out of her shop in Brooklyn, NY and teaches woodworking at Makeville Studio in Brooklyn, NY and at the North Bennet St. School in Boston MA. Her focus is on working wood by both machine and hand with a focus to the details of fine woodworking. Every piece she builds is touched by hand tools and built with care, consideration and respect for where the material came from and is going to. She graduated from the North Bennet St. School, Cabinet and Furniture making program in 2017, and also studied at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Maine. She was awarded the 2017 Future Craftsmen Scholarship from Oneida. Kelly is also a musician and life long learner of whatever curiosities arise.
www.kellyhappis.com / @kellyhappis
Laurent Merceron - Instructor
I'm a former magazine editor and mostly self-taught woodworker. I'm passionate about teaching a mix of power and hand tools to make simple, elegant designs. Specializing in creative problem solving, machine safety and technique, and building beginner confidence.
Robyn Mierzwa - Owner/Founder
Robyn founded Makeville Studio in 2008 as a way to develop and share her passion for making. Having studied architectural engineering and worked for almost 20 years as an architectural lighting designer, she has also been a life-long self-taught woodworker. In addition to designing and building custom furniture and lighting, Robyn loves teaching--for the enjoyment of getting to share what she has learned over the years and for the privilege of being a part of others' creative journeys.
Joe Samalin - Events/Social Media Manager and Shop Monitor
Alongside a 20+ year career in the nonprofit world preventing gender-based violence, Joe is a serious hobbyist woodworker. He worked for 3 years at Tools for Working Wood in Brooklyn, and as a carpenter doing set building at Indiana University, timber framing, and other random places around the country. He currently works with Make Good Traditional Handicrafts in Brooklyn with their Japanese woodworking classes, and creating children's furniture in partnership with his mom, an accomplished painter and fine artist. He lived in Japan for 5 years and is fluent in the language. He is a cat person, not a dog person, sorry.